Olds High School's (OHS) girls soccer team won bronze at the South Central Zone championship, despite being forced to miss the entire first day of play after the school division cancelled bus service.
The Spartans beat High River 6-1 in their last game of the season, finishing with a 5-2-2 record overall.
On Day 1 of the zone tournament in Drumheller, they forfeited two games and dropped to last place in the standings.
The day after, they came ready to make the most of it.
"We were looking at it in a positive light and thought ‘well, we'll do what we can, we're not out of this,'" said Karla Pohl, who coached the team with Jana Kemmere for their second year.
OHS beat Strathmore 4-3 but lost 3-1 to Carstairs in the semifinal.
Pohl said her team was capable of winning silver. But they didn't seem too concerned about how much better they could have fared if it weren't for the transportation issues.
"Maybe it didn't seem fair to them we didn't have a chance to prove ourselves but they all stayed positive and they just said, 'let's go for it.' Let's go as far as we can today' and ending up third was great. We're super proud of them," she said.
Coaches started with 21 players from grades 9-12. No cuts were made.
Most of them had played soccer in the minor association. But there were about five who had no experience, learning the rules as they went along.
"They surprised us. They sure improved through the season," Pohl said. "Their athleticism really helped us out because they were just able to run and be fierce out there."
The Spartans finished first at another tournament in Drumheller. Pohl said they won that tournament last year despite being underdogs, the school that wasn't known for a soccer program. As such, the five seniors on the team were eager to pull off the repeat.
"They were pretty excited to go into this tournament and try to achieve what we did last year."
"Maybe it didn't seem fair to them we didn't have a chance to prove ourselves but they all stayed positive and they just said, 'let's go for it.' Let's go as far as we can today and ending up third was great. We're super proud of them." KARLA POHL, co-coach
